Global cathode and precursor short-term outlook February 2022

In February, the price for precursor and cathode materials continued to increase following a quick start at the beginning of the year, mainly driven by soaring raw materials prices. We expect precursor and cathode prices to increase further in Q1 2022 before starting to fall back from the second or third quarter this year. In January, the volume of newly-installed Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) power batteries continued to surpass that of ternary power batteries in China after overtaking them in July 2021 for the first time in the past three years. Nickel-based cathode manufacturers are in the qualification stage for their high-nickel cathode materials technology with various cell and car customers. Lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxides (NCM) and Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode companies are manufacturing normally after the Lunar New Year.